It was to be expected that a reconnaissance mission to LexCorp would be hit or miss. Luthor was as pragmatic as he was ruthless and clever. That there were places that couldn't be reached was an expectation.
That didn't mean it wasn't frustrating.
With his meeting with Luthor, Batman felt that he had come out of there with less than what he had gone in. Oh, realizing that Luthor knew he was recording things was worth knowing, not to mention implicating that he had seen the future footage to figure that out. Yet, there wasn't a smoking gun, no other tells he could have followed up on.
"I don't know where you get your tech, Bats," Green Arrow was saying, the team having returned to the Tower of Fate as soon as they could, "but it was nothing against some of Luthor's security protocols. There was this one room we couldn't get in. It had every security future you could name: biometrics, retina scanners, voice recognition. You would have thought we were trying to breach the Pentagon or Fort Knox."
"The Pentagon would have been easier," Katana added.
That wasn't something Batman wanted to hear. The security protocols indicated that something was going on down there, something Luthor wanted no one to have access to. No doubt there were other features, like lead-lined walls, soundproofing, and the like to keep Superman from seeing or hearing anything as well.
"It's still something to investigate," Batman said after a moment. "If all the other leads fail, then we'll have to try another way in."
"Just say the magic word," Zatanna chimed in, her words coming out in a sing-song voice.
"What has my concern," Nightwing interjected then, "was all of the Omnicrons we found."
Batman tilted his head to regard the vigilante. It couldn't be too surprising that Omnicrons were in LexCorp; Luthor had just bought out Computron, so the tech was effectively his. He also understood why Nightwing would be apprehensive about it due to the Riddler using it for his own nefarious uses.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but LexCorp did just buy out the company that invented those toys, right?" Green Arrow said.
"That's correct," Batman confirmed.
Nightwing and Black Canary shared a look. "These were different though," the blonde vigilante responded. "These were called Omnicron 2.0."
"So an upgraded version," Arrow surmised. Clearly he wasn't getting won over by this.
"Here's the kicker," Nightwing then added. "The ones we saw were programmed with that video footage Batman took in the future."
That got his attention. "Programmed how?"
The younger man shrugged his shoulders. "From what I could tell, it was stuff from the future on loop. One of them had a lot of footage that involved Superman—the evil one, I guess."
Something felt off about this. Batman wasn't sure what to make of it, but adding it to what he knew of the video splicing of the broadcast and it was clear Luthor was making use of the footage. Damn it, what was the endgame here?
"We just keep going down a rabbit hole," Green Arrow remarked after a moment. "And here I thought Gotham had enough of those for the country."
"If that isn't weird enough, we also found something strange," Manhunter said. "Did you know that LexCorp bought Slaughter Swamp?"
No, no he hadn't. It seemed a lot had been slipping past him as of yet.
Upon seeing the blank stares, the brunette continued, "Huntress and I found phone logs, showing calls from Luthor to some place in Slaughter Swamp. Now, I'm not all that familiar with real estate, but I do know that Luthor is a big time developer. If he bought the swamp, he'd be trying to develop it."
"That's right," Arrow agreed.
"And yet, he hasn't," Batman finished. "So he must be up to something else there."
"Our thoughts exactly," Huntress replied.
Before they could go much further, a beep went off in Batman's ear, followed by a familiar voice. "Batman, we have a situation."
The dark-clad man immediately reached to his ear. "What is it, J'onn?"
"I have detected an incident aboard the Watchtower. I believe Green Lantern and Hawkgirl have captured Diana."
Captured? "What do you mean?"
"I felt Diana fall unconscious. Upon further investigation, I detected Lantern and Hawkgirl's presences next to her, leading me to believe they were the ones responsible."
Batman's hand tightened into a fist. Damn it, another domino was falling. "J'onn, I want you back at the Tower. I'm having Zatanna teleport you here. We have to respond."
"Understood."
He paused for a moment before adding, "And bring Girder with you. We can't chance someone attempting to finish him off while no one is around to watch him."
"Agreed. I will begin the evacuation."
Dropping his hand, Batman saw the others staring at him with concerned looks. "Wonder Woman has been captured," he reported, causing more alarm to appear on their faces. "Zatanna, teleport J'onn here. He and I will meet with Flash to counter this."
"Is that all I'm good for? Opening magic doors?" she muttered.
"And what about us?" Arrow added. "We're not going to sit here while you three do all of the work."
"Don't worry, I have a plan for all of you." Batman's mind was racing as he pieced together the most rudimentary plan he could. It was a contingency of his, so it made for a quick recollection. "We're going to draw the League out and you're going to be front and center."
"Uhh, come again?" the archer replied.
"It's similar to what I and the Insurgency did in the future," he explained. "We need to draw the League out, separating them."
"But won't they figure that out, since you used it already?" Black Canary pointed out. "Won't they be expecting it?"
"That's what we're counting on. The new League members will be dispatched to these locations, leaving the only people capable of guarding Wonder Woman close by."
"Meaning the Founders," Huntress said. "And I'm guessing that's who you plan to face with J'onn and Flash."
"And me," Zatanna stated, shooting a look at the Dark Knight. "You are not going into this one without all the help you can get."
"I have a plan for you already," Batman told her. "And you'll be coming with me after you bring J'onn here and I send Red Robin another communique to keep the Titans out of this. This is going to be time sensitive. Once everyone is in place, we go. Do whatever you have to do to keep the League at your location, but don't overexert yourselves. The main objective is staying alive."
"Naturally," Green Arrow smirked. "So what are these locations you want us to start causing trouble in?"
The corner of Batman's mouth twitched up. "Let's just say we'll be making the most of this endeavor."
This place was so droll, but so far Komand'r prided herself with tolerating it. Koriand'r's new home had the worst in interior designers working on it. It felt so impersonal with no touches of home to be found anywhere.
You could always count on Koriand'r to go along with someone else's decision.
Speaking of, she could still see the myriad of facial expressions that her little confession had inspired. Just like the rest of their people, so naive, so gullible, and so insulated. It's charm only lasted until cold, hard truth had to be told. Half the things brought up were ones her little sister struggled to understand and acknowledge.
There was a difference between willingly sacrificing and unwillingly sacrificing. Every sacrifice Koriand'r ever had to make was unwilling. Komand'r had learned the difference, and even if it made her into the villain many of their people saw her as, then that was a sacrifice she herself chose to make. Their people's salvation was more important than their dislike. Time would make fools of them in the end.
Protecting...saving Tamaran was all that mattered.
And then one of the humans crossed her path.
The male didn't see her and so she did not draw attention to herself. Her dark eyes watched the male in the body-fitting outfit, peculiar red cape thrashing about in his wake. The material of that garments was oddly thin, completely unlike her white one. His stride was what kept her attention.
Legs reached out, indicating that he was heading to a particular location. He was in a hurry. Purposeful, which indicated importance. His short hair that was a shade darker than hers stood out, and while his back was too her, she still saw the flash that was the face ornament that hid his eyes.
What had been the name she had been given? Hmm. Ah, yes, Red Robin. An odd name, but who was she to judge human names? They were meaningless in the grand scheme.
Still, there was a task he was going to attend to, and it held importance. Whatever could it be?
Taking the sides of her cape, she pulled the fabric close to her body, then levitated herself into the air. Komand'r glided after the stalking human, following after. He had not seen her and she was keen to maintain it.
After a turn down a hallway, she witnessed this Red Robin seal himself inside a room. He was seeking privacy. As she approached the door, she eyed the surface of the walls and the door itself. She already knew how soundproof these surfaces were. There had been trials waged with Galfore to confirm it.
She was not without options, though.
Slipping out what appeared to be a thin earpiece, she tucked in into the shell of her ear, pressing her thumb against it until—
"—going on. Everything's going well with keeping the Titans neutral. What's happening on your end?"
Success.
It was a marvel of the Psions, commissioned by the Citadelians for the purposes of espionage. So many took great pains to hide their secrets away, which meant others had to find methods of listening in. This Psion tech was able to get around features such as soundproofing, though how it did so, she did not know. Her little pet Psion had tried to explain it before, but he hadn't even the courtesy to simplify it so she shut it down.
It was said you could listen in on a conversation from the other side of a crowded room the size of the Citadel's imperial banquet hall and still hear every word clearly as if they were being said right next to you. You could even program your target's voice into the device and hear everything they said. While she did not have any of Koriand'r's human allies programmed in, there was no need. Human-based soundproofing was rudimentary.
"Those are a lot of places. I know the plan is to keep the Titans as far out of this as possible, but do you need any kind of reinforcement? I understand...I understand. We both know we need to be ready in case they get restless. I know that's my job. Herding teenagers is like herding cats—difficult. You need to give them something to keep them focused."
It didn't stop the downside, however. Hearing a one-sided conversation meant you only had half of the intelligence. So much was being lost. Komand'r did not know who Red Robin was speaking too, but it was clear there was deference there.
"Right now I have them focused, but that will only last so long. Alright, I'll contact you if I need something else. Now what's the real reason for this call? You didn't call just for an update."
Ah, there we go. Here was something to listen in on. Perhaps if she adjusted the setting of the earpiece, she might be able to...but there was a chance it would disrupt the communication in there. Red Robin was using a telecommunication device in there, perhaps an earpiece of his own. Her's might interfere with the signals his was receiving.
"That's a lot. I know they're up to it, though. And what will you be doing? The Watchtower?"
Watchtower, Watchtower, what did that name mean? Wait, was that not the name of that station up in orbit? The one that Galfore had to dock on before gaining permission to enter Earth's atmosphere? Something was indeed happening and what luck.
"Soon? You mean as soon as you get off the call."
It was happening, now. There was no time to waste. Orders needed to be given and actions taken.
"Keep me updated. I need to know when it's over and what the next move is."
Removing the earpiece, Blackfire tucked it away while gliding away. She had heard all she needed to. There was something big happening on this planet and it was time to take advantage of it.
There was a lot about Detroit that reminded Nightwing of Gotham and Bludhaven. It was a city slowly dying, a shadow of its former glory, still striving to return to those heights, but always failing. You really had to have a connection to this city if you really wanted to stay and that was perhaps something the vigilante felt he had in common with Green Lantern.
So the guy shouldn't begrudge a little help here.
Green Arrow was clamoring up onto the rooftop that the younger vigilante was perched on. They had officially completed their parts so far and soon enough the fireworks were about to begin. Sometimes, he wondered how Batman became aware of all this.
How had the Dark Knight found out about this smuggling ring that was making a lot of moola in this area? What, did some idiot try to expand to Gotham or something? Regardless, it was a big operation, one that was sneaking a lot of drugs through Canada. Cops knew about it and turned a blind eye because, you know, bribes. Same thing for a bunch of elected officials too. When they kicked off what came next, a lot of heads were about to roll.
"To be honest, I'm kinda impressed with this setup," Green Arrow remarked as he gazed at a former factory. Once, cars were built here, but not anymore. Old, decrepit, and getting closer and closer to needing to be demolished, this was a focal point in the whole smuggling operation.
"Well, they need to be good to keep off Green Lantern's radar," Nightwing pointed out. "A member of the Justice League calls this place home, so they gotta be low key. I don't know everything about his powers, but I wouldn't put it past that ring to be able to do some really impressive things."
"Until someone gets their head drilled open," the Emerald Archer grunted.
Nightwing didn't bother answering that. Instead, he slipped out a detonator. They had been at work earlier planting some explosives. They weren't powerful enough to level the place, but they were guaranteed to get a lot of attention. Even the dirty cops would have to respond. However…
With his other hand, he pulled out binoculars and looked through them. The factory had some security if only because the guys behind it didn't want some random hoodlums, or junkies coming across the massive stash and running off with it. People disappeared here and reappeared elsewhere, life expired.
However, just because the people involved here had little concern for life didn't mean they had to.
"See anyone close to ground zero?" he asked.
Green Arrow was quick to bring out his own pair of binoculars. Night vision made sure that they weren't completely in the dark. "I see someone loitering. Heck of a time for a smoke break."
Oh come on. Still, they were operating on Batman's rules and not that future evil Justice League's. "We'll give him five minutes, and if he's still there, we take him out."
"I'll get into position. At minute six, you hit that button no matter what," Arrow said as he slipped off. Nightwing didn't bother to follow after him; Arrow knew what he was doing. He had to since he had his own city to look after and had been doing so for years.
Nightwing himself was finding his groove. Yes, he had to balance it all with his job as a detective now, but he was getting better. Also, he was figuring out how Bludhaven itself operated. While similar to Gotham, it had its differences too. There were crime rings in the city that he had to permit because organized crime there was very different. It was more of a way to make ends meet and a lot of people depended on the black market in his city to survive.
It meant that he had to figure out another way then, and pitting some of those outfits against one another worked, if only because he had convinced quite a few to use him as a means to handle the competition. That meant a whole new channel of intelligence that would make Oracle drool. However, it didn't mean he turned a blind eye; his contacts knew he would intervene if anything was happening in front of him. Standards, you know.
So it made him wonder what else this smuggling operation was doing. Did it have any similarities with the ones he knew in Bludhaven? Were there people who were depended on it to survive?
It was easy to tell yourself to not care because you didn't know these people. But people were people and there were a lot more similarities than you thought. Too many, at times.
It wasn't going to stop him from doing his best to make this world a better place, though. Still, one had to wonder…
"Took care of the mook. Bombs away."
Green Arrow's voice was enough to cut through his thoughts. Had it been that long? Whatever, this was still a job and a small one when compared to the big picture. Without an instance's hesitation, he pressed the detonator.
Several explosions tore out of the former factory and on the north side a massive portion of the building's side collapsed. The boom was loud and soon multiple car alarms went off. Seconds later, there were sirens, and if you peered into the night, you could begin to make out flashes of red and blue.
Fires stuck around because there needed to be a reason for the League to come down. Green Lantern would show up because this was Detroit and his city. And, if it weren't enough, the secondary explosives could be triggered. That would really make this whole thing go south, which was what they needed.
"Keep your head down and wait," Nightwing spoke through the comm link. Then he proceeded to follow his own order.
The trick to not breaking priceless antiques was to not throw a person into one. You were just asking for damage that way.
Now slamming that person face first into the floor, that worked just fine.
With her hand on the back of a bad guy's head, Huntress kicked the guy's legs out from underneath him, using gravity to her advantage as she forced his head down. His face hit the floor hard, his limbs spasming for a moment before they went limp.
There was a yell and the dark-haired woman jerked her head up. She stayed kneeling next to her former opponent, seeing a taller, more muscular guy running at her while holding a crowbar over his head.
This was going to be trickier.
Waiting as the guy closed the distance between them, Huntress then sprung up from the floor, leaping over the body of the unconscious man. She held one leg back for only an instant before swinging it forward. Her timing was impeccable—if she didn't say so herself—her kick swinging up until it nailed the punk in the groin.
The crowbar fell to the floor. Huntress felt herself be pushed backwards due to the thug's momentum. She just backed away, stepping back over the fallen man as the one in front of her slumped down, tripping over his friend, and landed on the floor, both hands clutching at his family jewels.
To ensure he wouldn't be getting back up, Huntress raised a leg up and stomped it on the back of his head. It was a mercy, really. She was knocking him out so that he didn't feel his throbbing man parts. One could say she was performing a civil service.
Looking around herself, she saw the rest of her civil service in the form of stolen artwork, antiques, and so on. Midway apparently had quite a racket going on with stolen antiques. That Batman knew about it was surprising and unsurprising at the same time. Even now she could see a stolen Rembrandt from the Cyrus Pickney Museum in Gotham; and over there was an ancient Grecian vase that had vanished from Gateway City; and there was a statute straight from the Egyptian collection in Metropolis.
These guys had been quite industrious. Too bad they had drawn the ire of the Bat.
"Are there any more of them?" Huntress asked as she continued to look around. From amongst the stolen art, Black Canary sauntered around, looking as if she were viewing these priceless artifacts.
"I'm not seeing anything," the blonde reported. "I think we've got this room cleared."
"Then onward to the next room." Huntress spun around before walking off to a nearby door. Nearby was relative since she was pretty much in the center of the room, so nothing was close. She just headed for the first door she found.
"Oh, and you might want to make some kind of racquet in the next room," she reminded her comrade. "We're not doing our job if no one from the Justice League comes here."
"Technically, I am," Canary reminded her. Her face lit up as an idea occurred to her. "Why don't I send them a call? That should get their attention."
Huntress shrugged her shoulders as she reached the door. "By all means. Just as long as we get someone from that little clubhouse down here, all the better."
The more she learned about Metropolis, the more she felt it was full of itself. The City of Tomorrow was a load of crap, a marketing campaign to give it a pristine image.
Manhunter wondered how people would feel if it was known there was a human trafficking ring right at the port of the City of Tomorrow.
It was a shame that Superman wasn't actually doing his job down here. The brunette wondered how long this had been going on, right beneath his Wonder Boy nose. There was literally a shipping container sitting at one end of the dock and it was crammed full of people. From the distance she had been at to obtain that intel made it difficult to ascertain just where those people came from. Based on some of the ships docking nearby, she was putting her money on Russians.
If this were Gotham, the tried-and-true method of stealth would be the plan. However, they wanted to bring as much attention as they could, so loud and flashy was the order of the day. For some reason, it went against Manhunter's better judgement.
Crouched on the corner of a warehouse, she searched the docks for the heavily-armed security that was assuredly here. She spotted one man with a machine gun patrolling down one of the makeshift paths, created by the surrounding shipping containers and wooden crates. That lasted all of two seconds as Katana suddenly appeared behind him and smashed the butt end of her sword into the back of his head. He dropped like a sack of beans, lying crumbed on the dock.
Seemed she wasn't the only one having a hard time fighting baser instincts. Manhunter sighed. It looked as if it were up to her to liven things up. Hefting up her staff, she took aim at a stack of barrels. She wasn't sure what was in them, so long as they weren't human bodies. Charging up her staff, she fired a blast right at them.
The moment the beam hit, a large explosion rang out. A giant fireball was launched into the air, sending pieces of barrels flying all over the place.
Well, those certainly weren't bodies. It seemed she had literally struck oil.
As thick smoke rose into the air, Manhunter began searching for something else to blow up. There were people scrambling around to head for the fire, attempting to put it out. Some of those people would be normal dock workers just doing their jobs, but not all of them. Glancing back to Katana, she saw the Asian woman was taking down a couple more guards, both of whom never stood a chance.
It looked as if she were about to have more company though, as the brunette vigilante spotted other men running through the maze, a couple of which were closing in on her location.
Perhaps she could do something about that.
The reports were coming in as soon as the media caught wind of it. Superman sat in the chair before the large monitoring computer, leaning forward as he held his hands in front of his mouth, fingers entwined with each other. His blue eyes stared at the multiple images he was seeing.
Detroit was the first to report a disturbance. There were a number of explosions in a decrepit part of town. Then there was a call from one of their own, Black Canary, in Midway. She had stumbled upon some sort of stolen art racquet and was requesting backup.
The first two he could have seen as coincidence. It was the black cloud that was rising over the docks in Metropolis that told him there was a pattern and he would be a fool to ignore it. That last one particularly galled him as that was his city, the crown jewel of the world. It would be again once he re-established control.
Detroit, Midway, Metropolis—each was a city under the protection of Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and himself. Each one would immediately draw their attention, preying on their instinct to go protect them.
He could practically see Batman's fingerprints all over it.
"Three of them," he heard someone say behind him. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Hawkgirl standing there, her fists pressed into her hips. She looked much more presentable since her return to the Watchtower. She had combed her hair back into its normal style, the red haystack she had been sporting after being tased only a memory. Her eyes were fixated on the monitoring screen.
"Looks familiar, doesn't it?" he spoke, returning his attention to the screen. The doors to the Monitor Room opened then, allowing someone in.
"Did you hear?" Lantern asked them as the doors closed behind him. "Our cities are under attack."
"We were just discussing that," Hawkgirl informed him. "What's the play, Superman?"
"We do nothing."
He didn't have to see the shock that was naturally on their faces; well, make that John's. He didn't so much as hear a shift in Hawkgirl's stance. "What do you mean nothing?" the Green Lantern demanded.
"The three of us aren't leaving the Watchtower," the Kryptonian responded, turning his chair around to regard his colleagues.
"And why not?"
"Doesn't this feel familiar?" the dark-haired man asked. "Three cities, each one near and dear to one of us, placed in locations far from each other."
A frown appeared on John's face as he soaked in those words. It was Hawkgirl who responded though. "It's just like last time, when we were drawn away from the Hall of Justice."
Superman nodded. "Batman's up to something and he wants us off the Watchtower and in our cities. This time, we won't be giving him what he wants."
"And our cities?" John pressed. "We can't just leave them unprotected."
That was a fair point. The opinion of the Justice League in the media was not good at the moment. The absence of the League at these incidents would only fuel the narrative that they weren't doing their jobs. Something would need to be done, even if the three of them weren't involved. So in answer to his comrade, the Kryptonian raised a hand and activated his comm link. "All League members, report to the Monitor Room."
The three of them waited patiently until the rest of the League filed in. Flash was still absent, which was disappointing; so was J'onn, but he had responded that he was busy and could not come. Black Canary was obviously not here since she had made her emergency call from Midway. However, Green Arrow wasn't here. Was he down there with her?
"Thank you for coming," Superman said as he stood up from his seat. "We have a number of emergencies that need to be handled. Black Canary is currently in Midway and needs backup. Firestorm and Vixen, I want you to go help her out."
He saw the two League members in question nod their acceptance. "Steel and Black Lightning, there's something going down at the docks in Metropolis. I need you two to go investigate. Take Ice with you as there's a fire there and she'll be the best person to contain it."
"You got it," Steel replied for his team.
Which left, "Fire, Captain Atom, see to Detroit. I'm not certain what is going on there, but I need you to put an end to it."
"Yes, Sir," Captain Atom responded as he stood at attention.
"All of you, I don't care who is there, or what they're doing, but if you find anyone that doesn't belong there, I want you to arrest them," Superman then ordered. "With everything that has gone on and the Legion of Doom still out there, I don't want you taking any chances. And if Batman is at either of these locations, I want him brought in."
"All teams follow me," John announced then. "I'll transport you to your destinations with the teleporter."
The League members began to file out, leaving Superman to sit back down, Hawkgirl standing next to his chair. The moment the doors closed, he then spoke, "Alright, Bruce, let's see what your next move will be."
